Beats and yelling: Infernal Thorns

Christus Venari
Out 12^th September on Personal Records

Choppy, frantic death metal channels the frenetic energy of early Deicide into an explicitly gothic darkness. Borrowing the aesthetic material accrued from more populist extreme metal strains in the form of early 2000s Behemoth, refocusing what was previously empty fanfare into an efficient, tight, yet no less diverse expression of modern death metal. Melodic licks that would be regarded as cheesy in a different context are here treated as ornamental flourishes elevating the percussive barrage beneath. Where most death metal would resort to doom passages in an effort to create tension, Infernal Thorns throw in some slam breakdowns which against all the odds work as an effective contrast to the restrictive, dense environment incubated within the main narrative thread.

Initially dense and frantic, Infernal Thorns burrow beneath the high energy freneticism common to Chilean death metal to eke out fluid passages of high drama defined by a swirling siren call of guitar leads and black metal derived melodic content. In this manner they mirror Plague Bearer for their ability to render death metal with the darker aesthetic of its sister genre via a strong integration of riff languages rather than leaning on superficial aesthetic gestures.

The mix echoes this intention, frontloaded by the tight unity of guitar and rhythm sections, binding the album with a thick layer of muscle mass. From here space is created via subtle but effective choices made at the effects pedal, deploying open spaces where a single chord is settled on for additional measures to create tension, and the drums abandon the choppy, disruptive patterns in favour of loose, flowing blast-beats. Vocals veer between guttural monstrosity and mid-range aggression, traversing the complicated violence articulated across these pieces.

The morass of churning styles exhibited across this album evinces a certain degree of freedom on the part of Infernal Thorns. A confidence in the strength of vision and the ability to articulate it, a vision capable of travelling from one style to the next without losing integrity. In this sense ‘Christus Venari’ adopts an episodic, memetic flow as ideas and themes are transferred from one form to the next, software transferred to new hardware. Each aspect taking a more ambitious, open guise as the album progresses. Solos become more ambitious and flamboyant, the mix opens out to create the space required to accommodate them, drums and rhythm guitar gradually relax into subtle framing devices, maintain energy and intensity whilst loosening their grip on the music, granting it room to breathe. All this makes back to back listening sessions a worthy investment in this album, as the narrative arc overseeing the machinations at the micro level becomes more apparent with each relisten. A confident and engaging rendering of extreme metal that understands how to leverage its various aspects and techniques into a distinctive, overarching vision.